The surprising thing is that you can easily visit the South Korean side of the DMZ, but even more surprising, you can visit the JSA on most days. The Joint Security Area is a shared piece of land between North and South Korea where both can meet, and it was also used in the past to exchange prisoners of war (kind of amusingly so, a lot of north korean POW asked not to be sent back to North Korea, which made North Korea kind of upset and delayed the cease fire back in the day). We did a tour that started with the DMZ, which includes seeing the 3rd tunnel the north koreans were planning on using to invade one day, a (too quick) tour of the observation point where you can look at north korea through binoculars, but sadly you aren't allowed to use cameras from the place where you could actually get decent pictures, which was most disappointing. Whatever few shots I took were quickly stopped. Apparently it's not like the South Koreans really care, but they have a deal with the North Koreans to not allow those pictures:
entrance to the DMZ area and passport check
it's really just a long tunnel that gets low enough in places that it's quite uncomfortable if you're my height (1m77)
apparently there are still real mines left in there
the DMZ is the no man's land area between the 2 yellow lines, with the border in red in the middle
you're allowed to take selfies, but not to take pictures without yourself in that area
To get there, you become a guest of the United Nations, get on a UN bus with a US Army escort, and you get to see the freedom house, as well as the conference room that's right on the line between the 2 countries and where you can technically step on north korean soil for a few minutes. How cool or important to do, that is, it's for each to decide, but Jennifer did remark that it's a lot of bussing around and safety checks for the time spent there. Also, you're not supposed to take pictures in most places there, although a few were ok. Interestingly they allowed us to photograph North Korea from there, but asked us not to photograph South Korea behind us:
the south korean soldiers stand there all day with their fists clenched starting at the opponent (a single poor north korean guy with no so good looking clothes) on the other side
I actually feel sorry for the guy, he looks more scared than mean
I assume they are short on staff but are watching back nonetheless :)
to be honest, I'm not sure the South Koreans who stay there many hours without moving at all, are having a great time either